JINGLE ON MY SON!

5.9.17

Dear Mr. Armstrong,I
hope this finds you well. I've never done this in my life - i.e.
contact a writer - but felt I really had to thank you for the fabulous
poem about the Forth Bridge which appeared in the Scottish Review. It
so inspired me that I wanted to hang out the window and shout it across
the bay! (I live on a wee island on the west coast.)

Not only do
I also love that bridge (I spent my childhood holidays in Fife and
always got so excited whenever we crossed it), but I like bridges in
general (don't know what that says about me and don't care to find
out!). I'm also a Russian speaker and absolutely love Mayakovsky's
great poem inspired by the Brooklyn Bridge. Yours is equally inspiring,
as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway - all I wanted to do was to
congratulate you and say thank you for that truly marvellous poem. It
made my day reading it.

Strapping girders,lusty arches:the span of my ambition,shore to shoreyou link me with the old bones,the new ways,the true trains that take medown the path of all my loves.You lift up your wide armsto take in the tide,roll with the shaking windthat whistles in the rushesof the wild banks.You thrill me with your size,your strong embrace;you roar with achievement,you make me proud:I could hug you.Let me take the Queensferry train,slide through you to freedom.The pipes playand the kilts swayto greet us.You are the opening,the gap we streak throughto the woolly wildsof Auld Reekieand Bonnie Old Dundee;to the sea of workers’ blood,the red rust of the past that clingsand hugs the bones of dead engineers.In the Albert Hotel,tucked up, I hear you moan in the darkness.Naked,I pull back the curtainsand see you floodlitin all your entrancing glory.Shine on, shineyou crazy bridge.You have my devotion,you have my deepest darkest love.I would climb you stripped;I would feel you breathe in the Firth wind.I give you my heart and soul,I am frail against your depth.You will outlive me,do not mock me,you are superb.You are my outstretched lovely;I will breathe through you,long for you,die for you.Rock me,go Forthand inspire me.